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GAO advocates for a better-defined grants-management workforce

Wednesday - 7/31/2013, 6:29am EDT

By Cogan Schneier
Special to Federal News Radio

A recent
report from the Government Accountability Office recommended that the Office
of Management and Budget's
Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR), in an effort to "professionalize"
the grant workforce, make a clear distinction between a grants management
specialist role and a program specialist role in its future competency plans.

The June 28 report, released Monday, said the two positions have evolved as
agencies have taken their own approaches to managing grants.

The report said some agencies use a combination of program specialists — or
subject-
matter experts — and grants management specialists, while others use program
specialists to manage the entire grants process.

Though 5,100 employees were significantly involved in managing grants, GAO found
their positions spanned more than 50 occupational jobs series. The report
suggested that finding a way to better define such positions could help create
governmentwide grant management plans.

"With such a diverse range of job series across federal grant-making agencies, and
given the considerable variation in how agencies assign individuals to grants
management roles, it is difficult to identify all the staff responsible for
managing federal grants other than on an agency-by agency basis," the report said.

OMB issued proposed
guidance in February to help agencies manage grants, which dealt mostly with
auditing and reporting.

The Office of Personnel Management also created a job series for grant management,
referred to as "Grants Management Series, 1109." The report said that more
than half of the 22 federal grant-making agencies made limited or no use of the
series.

The report highlighted work done at the Department of Health
and Human Services, which made great use of OPM's new job series. Other agencies,
including the Transportation and Education departments, did not.

"These agencies told us that this decision resulted from their grants management
approach where program specialists, who have expert subject-matter knowledge in
the grant program area, also carry out the functions of grants management
specialists," the report said.

Agencies did note that various practices to develop the grant-management workforce
are going well, including competencies, agency specific training and certification
programs.

The government spends
between $500 billion and $600 billion annually on grants, and almost every
department has a major grants program.

The report said OMB staff concurred with all of GAO's recommendations.